Donor Impact

Roper Hospital Rooftop Helipad

Every second matters during a medical emergency, especially in cases of a heart attack or stroke. Heart disease is the second leading cause of death in the Charleston Tri-County, and quick access to care can be the difference between life and death. Through philanthropy, Roper St. Francis hopes to change this statistic.

Watch the helipad video to see how donations are making an impact on care in our community.

Roper St. Francis patients can now receive medical care 15 to 20 minutes faster with the new Roper Hospital Rooftop Helipad, the peninsula’s first hospital rooftop helicopter landing pad. Before, all airlifted patients were picked up by ambulance from a landing pad on a parking garage and transported, through traffic, to the hospital.

The minutes saved are important for conditions such as a STEMI, a severe type of heart attack during which one of the heart’s major arteries is blocked. Every second counts as the longer the artery is blocked, the more massive the heart attack. A patient experiencing a STEMI will now be unloaded and into the heart catheterization lab in approximately three minutes, saving 17 vital minutes from the previous process.

The Roper St. Francis Foundation launched the Roper Hospital Rooftop Helipad campaign in 2011 to raise the $1.8 million needed to build the structure and address the shortfall in access to emergency care in downtown Charleston. Through the generosity of donors, this vision became a reality.